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Ministry Proposes Candidates for Svyazinvest Board

The board of directors at Svyazinvest could get a fresh lineup of high-profile, private-sector businessmen as the Communications and Press Ministry pushes forward with efforts to diversify management at the country's largest telecommunications holding.

The ministry presented a list of six candidates for Svyazinvest's board of directors, Vedomosti reported, citing an unidentified federal official.

Two candidates have experience in the telecommunications sector. They are Jean-Pierre Vandromme, former chief of major land-line phone company Golden Telecom, and Oleg Malis, who previously served as Altimo's senior vice president and chaired the 4G consortium, which prepared the criteria for selecting suppliers for the 4G mobile network.

Other candidates were drawn from different professions. In that category are editor-in-chief of RIA-Novosti Svetlana Mironyuk, managing partner of law firm Rappoport and Partners Alexander Rappoport, former chairman of Russia's division of Morgan Stanley Yelena Titova and Ruben Aganbegyan, the CEO of financial corporation Otkritie.

Candidates were chosen with an eye toward professional diversity, as the ministry looked to tap into such fields as telecommunications, investment, media and law, said Yekaterina Osadchaya, a representative of the Communications and Press Ministry.

There are currently nine members on the board of directors, seven of whom are linked to state organs or companies.

A commission at the Federal Property Management Agency will draft a list of candidates, from which the government will choose the finalists. According to Vedomosti's source, the agency has already agreed on the proposed candidates.

Syazinvest's board of directors, which will be chosen next year, could be the last for the state company, Interfax reported.

Then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed an order in March to reorganize Svyazinvest by merging it with Rostelecom. The transformation is set to be completed in the second half of 2013.

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